Do you suppose the
people all hibernate during those seasons?"
But no one had an answer to that.
Van Emmon said he would give all he was worth to explore the Sanusian
mountains long enough to learn their geology. He said that the rocks
ought to produce some new mineral forms, due to the peculiar condition
of strain they would be subjected to.
"I'm not sure," said he thoughtfully, "but I shouldn't be surprised if
there's an enormous amount of carbon there. Maybe diamonds are as
plentiful as coal is here."
At the word "diamonds" Smith glanced covertly at Billie's left hand. But
she had hidden it in the folds of her skirt. Next moment the doctor
warned them to be quiet; Somat and Rolla were talking again.
He was telling her about his world. She learned that his people, who had
never concerned themselves with her side of the planet, had progressed
enormously beyond the Sanusians. Rolla did not understand all that he
told her; but the people on the earth gathered, in one way or another,
that civilization had proceeded about as far as that of the year 1915 in
Europe. All this, while fellow humans only a few thousand miles away,
not only failed to make any progress at all, but lived on, century after
century, the absolute slave of a race of bees!
But it was a fact.
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